Stones show off youthful energy

LOS ANGELES – The Rolling Stones must have passed through a time machine before taking the Staples Center stage to kick off their “50 and Counting” anniversary tour.

Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts delivered a rousing set Friday night with the kind of youthful energy and musical verve they displayed decades ago. Their faces showed their age, but their performance did not, with a nonstop, more than two-hour set packed with well-worn hits.

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Jagger and Richards are each 69 years old, and Watts is 71, but they transformed into their younger selves for the night. Wood is the baby of the band at 65.

Jagger might not hit all the notes he once did, but he still busted out his almost spastic, serpentine dance moves on song after song. He’s impossibly thin, and his spine showed through the light shirt he wore.

Staples Center was packed to capacity for the concert, the first of 17 dates the Stones are due to play throughout the United States.

The stage was modeled after the band’s iconic logo, with lips and teeth above the stage and a tongue-shaped platform that extended into the crowd.

A video of famous folks sharing their favorite Rolling Stones memories played before the band took the stage.

U.S. sending hip-hop artist on African trip

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The State Department is sending a Minnesota hip-hop artist to Africa as part of a cultural exchange program. Toki Wright will be in Sierra Leone for two weeks, starting Tuesday.

Wright heads the hip-hop studies program at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. While in Africa, he’ll work with aspiring young artists in the cities of Kenema and Freetown and perform with Sierra Leonean afro-pop and reggae star Emerson Bockarie.

Wright’s trip is organized by the State Department’s Arts Envoy Program.

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